Impact of Social Network and Business Model on Innovation Diffusion of Electric Vehicles in China

The diffusion of electric vehicles (EVs) involves not only the technological development but also the construction of complex social networks. This paper uses the theory of network control to analyze the influence of network forms on EV diffusion in China, especially focusing on the building of EV business models (BMs) and the resulting effects and control on the diffusion of EVs. The Bass model is adopted to forecast the diffusion process of EVs and genetic algorithm is used to estimate the parameters based on the diffusion data of Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) in the United States and Japan. Two different social network forms and BMs are selected, that is, battery leasing model and vehicle purchasing model, to analyze how different network forms may influence the innovation coefficient and imitation coefficient in the Bass model, which will in turn result in different diffusion results. Thereby, we can find the appropriate network forms and BMs for EVs which is suitable to the local market conditions.